Avoiding predictable play in poker tournaments.

When playing in online poker tournaments, you’re eventually going to have to start mixing up your play so as to trap your opponents and capture their stack. Sometimes, even when you know it’s going to cost you a few chips it can pay in the long run to make a few skeptical plays visible to your opponents.

Forethought should always be taken however, because your adversaries in the early stages of online poker tournaments are willing to risk far more than you would expect.However, once you hit the middle stages and your opponents skill level becomes more noticeable, mixing up your hole cards and betting activity can pay huge dividends when the opportunity shows itself.

Your goal here is create disarray in your opponents and that may take some experience to do correctly and cheaply. You might not be as good at making reads, and are further obstructed by not being able to look an opponent in the face while playing online.

Pot control is the key here as you want to mix it up, but not make it costly to do so. This is often difficult because many new players suffer from a lack of emotional control at the table and that gets them into trying and often times costly situations.

Emotional control and judgement will pave the way for improved play on your part – something you must do to quash being played against by intelligent sharks. For long term winning in poker tournaments, a lack of control will cost you money.

Building deception in a poker tournament can be easily attained by using this tactic. Have a few select “favorite” hands that you will play like they were much stronger hole cards and whenever you get them debate making a bet. Of course, not always in case someone else went all in before you or made a huge raise from early position, but you when you are in those small ball pots against strong players, raise with your 67 suited, your J9os or your Th8h.

Whatever hands you select at the start of the tournament, consider those your inventive hands and there you go – unpredictability. The added bonus here is that if your opponents are using poker software to track your style of play they are getting misinformation.